Beast
Donna Jo Napoli
New York: Antheum Books for Young Readers. 2000.
Genre: Fractured Fairy Tale
Read it if: You like re-tellings of well known stories.
Best for: Late Middle School and High School students looking for a thought-provoking take on a classic tale.
If you like it try:
Rating: 3.5/5
Born to the Royal Family of Persia, Prince Orasmyn lives a life of wealth and privilege inside the walls of the Shah's palace. But on a day of celebration, Orasmyn makes a decision that brings on the wrath of a pari, a fairy who's curse instantly changes the course of Orasmyn's life. In his beastly form, Orasmyn struggles to survive and to find the love that will break the curse.
Drawing on Charles Lamb's 1811 poem Beauty and the Beast, which names the beast Orasmyn and notes his Persian origins, Donna Jo Napoli brings a new perspective on this well known fairy tale, making the beast a fully real character. Using the plight of Beast, Napoli writes frankly of desire versus control, and the struggle of the animal versus the human in us all. Orasmyn's journey to understand what it means to love is a coming-of-age tale that is easy to identify with. In many ways, Beast is the story of struggling to move from the child to the adult world.
Illustration from Charles Lamb's Beauty and the Beast
This novel is unusual in it's focus on Beast's perspective; other re-tellings of Beauty and the Beast (there are several, see above), are from Belle's point of view. This may cause more male readers to identify with this book, although I would argue that the story is universal enough to appeal across gender and age lines. Both late middle school and high school students will enjoy this read.
This isn't your grandmother's Beast
A thoughtful and provoking novel, Beast is an old tale transformed.
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